Bulls happy with White’s ‘project’
DONE WELL TO GROW DEPTH & QUALITY OF SQUAD
Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone says the franchise are pleased with how the team have progressed under the guidance of the director of rugby, Jake White, since taking charge at Loftus Versfeld in 2020.
White steered the team to a fourth Super Rugby title (Unlocked, during Covid) while the team also reached the inaugural final of the United Rugby Championship in 2022, where they lost to the Stormers.
This season the Bulls are again in the mix in the URC – they are second on the points table – while they are also in the play-offs of the Champions Cup.
Under White’s guidance the Bulls have grown their depth and quality, one of the reasons why the Pretoria-based team are progressing as well as they are, according to Rathbone.
“We are now in year four of the project, and Jake has spoken widely about it in the last few years,” Rathbone said.
“Our plan was to keep the core of this team together and supplement it with players coming in at a later stage.
“Gerhard Steenkamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Mornay Smith, Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw, Embrose Papier (and some others) have been here since 2020. Now in the third season of the URC, most of those guys are now close to 50 caps in the URC.
“Suddenly, you have an experienced team supplemented by experienced guys like Willie le Roux, Akker van Merwe and unbelievable youngsters like JF van Heerden and Mpilo Gumede, who is coming into his own.
“That’s the route you want to take. You get young guys and get them experience and supplement that with more experience and have the core of your juniors coming through,” he said.
The Bull invested heavily in recruitment last year, and they have already started being busy in the market. They made Devon Williams’ loan deal from the Pumas permanent and also recently signed lock Cobus Wiese, who will join in July.
Rathbone says the Bulls will not sign a lot of players for the next term as they have a settled core.
“The recruitment done this year is a lot less than last year because we are pretty happy with our squad,” he said.
“It’s supplementing one or two positions that we feel we might be thin in. We have been fortunate with injuries but certain positions are more injury-prone than others. That’s where we will look to bulk up.”